System Restore & Image Software?

I recently bought Acronis True Image 10 and am successfully doing
image creations and restores consistently, although still lots of RTFM
ahead of me before I get fancy with it. The more I use it, the less
it seems necessary to leave XP System Restore turned on.

Do any of you experienced imagers out there leave System Restore turned
on in XP, and if so, why? For all of the 25 minutes it takes here to
restore a full image of the OS partition, when in doubt I would feel
much safer doing that

Thanks.

 

I had system restore fail on me so many times that I learnt my lesson and turned it off. Would never rely on it again, when there are so many better alternatives.
Also of course, it is only of value IF you can get into Windows in the first place........

Ken

 

Turn it off...

 

That's right, turn it OFF.
Suppose, you install a new legit software, that doesn't like your system and corrupts your system so badly, that you can't even boot in Windows anymore. (This happened to me two times in one year, no kidding).
How are you going to use Windows System Restore, if you can't even boot in Windows anymore
Only ATI10 will be able to save you in such scenario.
If you want REAL Immediate System Restore, trial FirstDefense-ISR, this software will restore your system in no time, even when you can't boot in Windows anymore or when you have a frozen BSOD and you are stucked forever.
ATI10 is enough and necessary, that's a keeper. I worked with ATI for more than a year and it never failed.

 

I've lost count of how many times System Restore either failed to work on my XP PC or failed to restore everything. There's probably some connection between this and my installing FD-ISR, ATI, and Paragon on that PC. I can't say System Restore ever failed on my Vista PC because I turned it off as soon as I activated the PC. I have FD-ISR and Seagate DiscWizard on my Vista PC and I'll be buying Paragon Drive Backup 8.51 Professional if Paragon support can ever figure out how to get cyclic (automatic scheduled) backups to work with Vista.

I recommend using two backup imaging and/or instant recovery programs (any single program can fail under unusual circumstances) and turning off System Restore to avoid wasting the disk space. IMO trusting System Restore is like trusting politicians ... it requires more blind faith than I can muster.

FadeAway,

You used the phrase "get fancy" with ATI. I've found ATI v9 and DiscWizard (which is a stripped down version of ATI v10) to be utterly reliable so long as I always make full backup images and avoid the Secure Zone feature. It was only when I attempted to "get fancy" (i.e. deviate from using full images stored on other hard drives) that problems ensued using ATI.

 

Hi, folks: How about VCOM's system suite v.7 pro ? I am testing it, and found its recovery features are somewhat interesting. Checkpoint feature allows user to create a new restore point prior to each new setup; disksnapshot feature assists user in creating a new disk snapshot at each start up. Should anything happen to pc, these two functions are able to revert it to previous working conditions. Anyone has experiences to share? Have a nice day.

 

Turn it off as long as you are backing up fairly frequently

Thanks,

Chris

 

Question answered, thank you all.
I never liked the idea that it might
capture temporary confidential data.

SYSTEM RESTORE FUNCTIONS
===== TERMINATED =======

(flashing sign)